‘The profession should play an active role in certifying the quality of public legal information (PLE) so as to help people identify whether they have legal problems, according to the head of an access to justice charity.’

‘More than 60% of students who completed the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) fail to get pupillage, statistics from the Bar Standards Board have shown as the regulator ponders reforms to training.’

‘I was contemplating my lectures for the coming academic year and I started to feel annoyed – I think the two were connected. Lecturing has started to seem a rather odd and inefficient way of communicating information about constitutional law to students. Though lectures can be fun to deliver, they are also a pain. For the lecturer, they consume a significant amount of time and energy, raising a sense of déjà vu, as last year’s insights and jokes are dusted off for a new audience. But things are worse for those who have to listen to the thing: dragged into a lecture that can last for an hour or more, a moment’s lack of concentration can mean important points are missed – and few in the audience will only suffer a moment’s inattention. It is becoming obvious that the opportunities presented by the Internet will change this over the coming few years; I would bet that the old-style lecture will only last little while longer (though there are strong forces of creaking institutional inertia protecting it). Putting to one side next year’s teaching, I began to speculate on the ways in which the Internet might change the ways in which we, as legal scholars, communicate our subject to students and to people more generally in the medium term. In this post, I will reflect on how I see legal academia developing over the next five or so years – I think we are on the cusp of a very exciting and largely positive shift in the way in which we operate.’

‘The Lord Chief Justice has signalled concerns about the impending reform to educating law students, saying that a “very broadly based legal education” and law schools “as the centres of excellence” must not be diluted.’

‘The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is to launch a consultation this summer setting out the rule changes it needs to implement its fiercely contested training reforms, and among them will be a new route to qualification similar to solicitor apprenticeships.’

‘At its Board meeting last night, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) decided that it will authorise a limited number of future training routes for prospective students to qualify as barristers. One of these is likely to be a new training course, which has been proposed by the Council of the Inns of Court (COIC) and the Bar Council. The Board also agreed a Policy Statement setting out its vision for the future of Bar training.’

‘What is the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) new mandatory regime on continuing professional development (CPD) for solicitors? Nicola Jones, co-founder and director of Athena Professional and a learning for performance consultant, takes a look at the new rules and provides guidance on how firms can implement them into their practices.’

‘Theresa May has been urged by 250 legal academics to cancel Donald Trump’s state visit and scale back Britain’s support for the US until he reverses his positions on immigration, refugees, torture, climate change and judicial independence.’

‘More than 500 barristers have signed an open letter opposing the Bar Standards Board’s proposals to shake up the training regime for would-be barristers. In a letter published today, the barristers, who include former master of the rolls and lord chief justice Lord Woolf, say the consultation is not “guided by a proper understanding” of the BSB’s objective of promoting and protecting the public interest ‘

‘The Bar Council has criticised Bar Standards Board proposals for alternative ways of qualifying, claiming its consultation into future training at the bar misses a ‘long-awaited opportunity for reform’. It also dismisses the need for a central exam along the lines of the solicitors qualifying examination.’

‘The Bar will “truly be able to say that barristers are better educated in the law than solicitors” if the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) presses ahead with its reform of education, law lecturers have said in an excoriating response to the regulator’s consultation.’

‘Consultation fatigue is a particular problem for the Bar, with its substantial cohort of busy and independently minded practitioners. But every once in a while, along comes a paper upon which we should all of us express a strong view: the Consultation on the Future of Training for the Bar: Further Routes to Authorisation – prominently the reform of the Bar professional training course (BPTC).’

‘The status and quality of legal representation for children before the Youth Court need to be raised first by an increase in legal aid rates and then by mandatory training for all solicitors and barristers appearing for them, a government-commissioned review has recommended.’